Rufián will be the ERC candidate but will also campaign with Podemos in the State

BarcelonaThe Gabriel Rufián soap opera ended this Sunday, with last-minute plot twists. As the party announced in a statement, the current leader in Madrid will head the ERC list for the general elections on November 29, and will be number one on the list for Barcelona. However, sources close to Rufián emphasize that he has reached an agreement with Podemos and that this party "will not run in Catalonia," since, in fact, it "will ask for the vote" for ERC. Furthermore, Rufián "will campaign outside of Catalonia" with Irene Montero's organization.

It is an unprecedented move for an independence party where, beyond the alliance with other non-sovereignist left-wing parties, its headliner engages in campaigning outside the Principality. Be that as it may, "it is a front open to whoever wants it," according to sources close to the republican, thus appealing to the Broad Front. Despite what Rufián's circle says, ERC avoids confirming a pact with Podemos.

The decision regarding the candidacy headed by the leader from Santa Coloma will be formalized this very Sunday at a meeting of the party's national executive, and it was reached at the last minute: the deadline to submit the candidacy ended this afternoon. "Over the next few days, the details of the candidacy will be finalized with the holding of the different regional congresses," the party adds. On October 20, the various internal bodies of the party are scheduled to meet to approve the candidacies for both the Senate and the Congress.

For months, Rufián has been calling for "unity" among parties to the left of the PSOE, an amalgam in which he included ERC, unlike what EH Bildu, the BNG, or Adelante Andalucía have done, which due to their sovereignism have excluded themselves from this bloc. His events with Podemos leader Irene Montero, Més Madrid leaders like Emilio Delgado, or Mònica Oltra from Compromís, already stirred an internal debate that Junqueras had always resolvedmaking it clear that his party would go it alone: "I went to prison for Catalonia, not so that [Ada] Colau could be a deputy on an ERC list," he went as far as to say.

Some differences that he maintains with the Comuns space and the Broad Front, despite the fact that Colau offered Rufián the chance to exercise his "leadership" to unite the left. At this moment, sources from the Comuns assure that they respect "Gabriel Rufián's decision to continue under the ERC banner", but they regret "that he has not wanted to participate in the construction of a Broad Front of the left to maximize the options to stop and defeat the right again as was already done in 2023". "We, the Comuns, remain committed and working actively for the articulation of a state-wide Broad Front that responds to the will for unity expressed repeatedly by the citizenry", they conclude.

Long trajectory

The parliamentary spokesperson in the State capital has had a group in Congress torn apart as a result of a long-standing division that has only worsened, as ARA has already explained, with several members who do not speak to the spokesperson in the lower state chamber. In fact, several deputies have announced that they are leaving state politics for the upcoming elections, without mentioning the man from Santa Coloma in their farewells, as is the case with Pilar Vallugera or Jordi Salvador, who even had public clashes with the leader in Congress. In this sense, one of Rufián's requests was for a group more tailored to his needs with people close to him, although a leader quite distant from the candidate, such as Teresa Jordà, has wanted to continue in Madrid by running to head the lists for the Girona constituency.

It will remain to be seen how the Republicans' list turns out, which in principle must be ratified by the different federations. What is clear, in any case, is that Rufián will repeat as the head of the party founded in 1931 by prominent leaders such as Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys. The man from Santa Coloma was first elected as a state deputy following the elections in December 2015, coming from the pro-independence Spanish-speaking association Súmate, and has built his career since then, with his best results being those of the 2019 electoral contests, when ERC won in the Principality. His viral interventions, as well as his connection with a part of the youth, have been strong points that have always been valued internally, despite the fact that his use of Spanish in Congress when it is possible to speak in Catalan has caused discomfort.